LSHTM expert responds to executive order calling for fewer vaccinations and for the combined MMR jab to be replaced with individual vaccinations
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on 10 August 2026 calling for children in the US to receive fewer vaccines and recommending splitting the mumps, measles and rubella (MMR) into individual shots.
Despite scientific consensus that there is no evidence to support false claims of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism, with the original claims proven to be fraudulent, President Trump repeated suggestions of a link.
He also went on to question the safety of the MMR vaccine when numerous studies have shown it to be safe and effective and have confirmed that measles, which can be fatal or cause life-long disability, remains far more dangerous than any measles vaccine.
Dr Ben Kasstan-Dabush, Assistant Professor in Global Health & Development at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), said: "The Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) vaccination has a proven track record of being highly safe, effective and well tolerated, and Wakefield's claim of a link to autism robustly rejected as a fabrication. Measles-containing vaccination, in particular, is credited with having the greatest contribution to reducing child deaths, sickness, and disability of any vaccination over the past 50 years.
"There is no evidence that offering the MMR vaccination as single injections is a safer or more effective method of immunising children. To the best of my knowledge there is no country that offers single injections as part of their national vaccination schedules, making the decision taken in the US to recommend splitting the MMR vaccination an experiment rather than an evidence-based decision.
"This move will further obstruct efforts to contain measles outbreaks that have persisted in the US, where there have been 2,465 confirmed measles cases reported as of 6 August 2026 and three deaths linked to measles in 2025. The Trump administration have a responsibility to explain how their latest recommendations will help to contain these outbreaks and the consequences for families. There is a very real risk that single injections will lead to decreased vaccination uptake, and would put more children at risk of vaccine preventable-diseases.
"UK families should be reassured that recommendations made by the Joint Committee for Vaccines and Immunisation are firmly rooted in evidence. The NHS vaccination schedule recommends that children receive two MMR/MMRV doses, administered alongside other vaccinations. At no point in the schedule is a child called in to a GP surgery to receive only one vaccination. Single injections would involve parents bringing their children for at least 6 separate appointments (or 8 in the case of MMRV). This would increase the risk of exposure to vaccine-preventable diseases, because children would need additional time to be brought up to schedule, and the burden on primary care teams as they need to offer more appointments per child.
"Offering single vaccinations may also influence parental risk perceptions, and lead parents to getting one vaccine (e.g. measles) for their child but not another (e.g. rubella). This scenario would be dangerous because children would not complete the full course of MMR vaccination so that they would not be protected, while also eroding population immunity and increasing the risks to those who cannot be vaccinated."
